Chapter Sixteen

The go-karts shot forward like rockets, their tires kicking up sand as they left the starting line.

“Woohoo!” Ella yelled.

The island whipped by at a blurring speed. Her hair flew back as she zipped past a palm tree. The track curved left, taking her to the ocean’s lip. She got so close, in fact, that a bit of salty water sprayed onto her, causing her to howl with laughter.

The curve continued a few more yards before leveling out and sending her back toward the center of the island. She wasn’t in first place, but she wasn’t last, either. Winning didn’t matter, though. She was just enjoying the thrilling ride.

For those few moments, she didn’t have a care in the world. She wasn’t concerned about her weight. Her business wasn’t laying heavily on her mind. She wasn’t terrified to be so far away from her kids. She was simply living in the moment, zipping around that magnificent island in the go-kart, living life to its fullest.

She was almost finished with one lap when she saw Bryan and Captain Reagan sitting at a tall bar table, smiling as the Littles approached. They both raised their drinks in a toast.

Ella took one hand off the steering wheel and waved back.

She kept going. People had stopped near the side of the track to watch and cheer the drivers on. A few Littles could be overhead begging their respective Mommies and Daddies for a turn in the cars.

Then Ella overheard something else.

It was the blond woman again. She was wearing nothing but a white bikini and a sheer coverup. Her assets were on display.

“He’s over there,” she told a friend. “Sitting with the captain…”

That’s all Ella caught as she zoomed by.

“Oh, hell no!” Ella said. “She’s not going to move in on him!”

Without thinking about it, she jerked the wheel to the left and veered off the course. A nearby attendant was yelling at her, waving a red flag, but she ignored him and kept going. She spun the wheel into a tight U-turn, sending grainy sand flying up and raining down all around her. She swerved but managed to straighten the vehicle as she headed back the way she’d come. She stayed off the path as to not cause a head-on collision with the other drives. They whipped by to her left, but she was going so fast that they were nothing but a blur.

She needed to hop the go-kart track, though, to cross over to where Bryan and the captain were. She had to reach them before that woman did! She wasn’t sure what the woman wanted, but it couldn’t be good!

She waited until the last of the other cars had passed and then tugged the wheel hard, causing her kart to go back up on the track and across it. She came off with a jarring thud but kept going.

She ran over a fallen cocoanut, causing her to bounce as the wheels crushed it. That didn’t slow her down, though. Nothing would.

She had to make one more turn and then she’d reach her destination. She had no idea what she’d do once she got there—and she’d probably be in major trouble—but she’d worry about that later. Right now, she just needed to stop that woman from talking to Bryan again.

She skidded into the turn. She misjudged it, though, not slowing down enough.

“Oh crap!” she yelled.

The nose of the go-kart plowed into a fruit stand. Mangos and soursops flew everywhere. The owner of the stand—a short, middle-aged man—waved his arms angrily and yelled something in Dutch that Ella didn’t understand.

But she understood Bryan when he reached her along with the captain.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. “I’m, uh, fine,” she said. She used two fingers to rake a sheen of busted mango off her face. Some of the juice rolled down to her lips. It didn’t taste bad at all.

“What on earth happened?” he said.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I had to reach you before that woman did!”

“That woman? Honey, what is going on?”

“I just…needed to reach you…before she did.”

Bryan was still clearly confused. He put his hands on his hips, studied Ella, and, a few seconds later, shook his head. “Are you telling me this wasn’t some kind of malfunction on the car? You did this on purpose?”

Ella gulped and nodded before sinking lower in.

She was in big, big trouble.